The Milan metro is moving to a smart card system for local passengers with monthly or annual passes. This is fine for the locals, but those in authority, in their infinite wisdom, have also removed the ticket machines from many (most?) metro stations. The new orange machines can only be used for smart card "refills," not to buy single tickets. Most of the machines to stamp paper tickets at the turnstiles have also been replaced by smart card readers.

This has led to two major problems:

* In Milan's Central Station, the only place to buy a paper ticket is from the edicola (newstand) inside the metro station (for some reason the edicola in the main concourse of the railway station no longer sells them) or from the two old (yellow) ticket machines near the attendants' booth and the turnstiles. In recent months, during peak traffic periods such as big trade shows, I have seen huge lines at both, plus lines to stamp the tickets at the turnstile.

* In most stations there is no ticket machine at all, just an edicola where you can still buy tickets - but they're not open late at night or on Sundays.

So... try to get tickets BEFORE you go into a metro station; they are still sold at most newstands and many tabaccai (tobacco shops).

If you are staying out of town and commuting into Milan, it is often possible to buy Milan metro tickets at outlying railway stations such as Lecco (and probably Monza and Como) - ask in the edicola at the station.

More on http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/...ilanmetro.html

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

beginningwithi.com

Deirdre, thanks so much for taking the time to post this and other useful info. I'm going to milan in june and this is very helpful. many thanks.

Hello Deirdre,

Thank you for posting this article. I will be in Milan in just a couple weeks, so this is very helpful to know.

Deidre - thanks so much! I'll be in Milan in June for one night before catching a plane, so this is very useful.

June for us too, so thanks a bunch.

We'll be coming down from Como and will try to get our metro tickets there.

VS

hey all of you going to Milan -- where are you staying? we only have 2 nights in july and want to be centrally located and got a weekend deal at Hotel Gran Duca di York, 118 euro for superior room. anyone stayed here, or have better idea? we want a/c and very central location for duomo and la scala. thanks.

Thanks DS! We'll be in Milan in 28 days. Very good info!